Category Archives: Cocktails

Club-Mate, Cocktails, Lime Juice, Simple Syrup, Soft drinks No comments

Matequirí – A non-alcoholic Daiquirí

I have been wishing for a non-alcoholic alternative to the Daiquirí, which is one of my favourite cocktails, if not my favourite cocktail, for a while now.

Recently I was introduced to Club Mate, a caffeinated soft drink based on mate extract manufactured in Münchsteinach, Germany by the Brauerei Loscher KG. My first impression on trying it for the first time was that its taste reminded me of a Ron Añejo, i.e., aged rum of the Spanish-style. If Club-Mate tastes somewhat like a Ron Añejo, then maybe a cocktail based on the classic Daiquirí recipe, where the Cuban rum is replaced by Cub-Mate, would taste like a Daiquirí, but without the alcohol. And yes, it does work very well, so much so that a Matequirí is a good alternative to a Daiquirí, if you do not want the alcohol!

Club-Mate is high on caffein , but is relatively low on suger content, and the amount of Club-Mate used in the Matequirí is still small compared to the contents of a 330 ml bottle.

Club-Mate is now available in both the U.S. and U.K.

2 oz 60 ml Club Mate
1 oz 30 ml Freshly squeezed lime juice
½ oz 15 ml Bar syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice and double strain into a chilled coupé glass. Even though Club-Mate is carbonated, shaking the ingredients is not detrimental to the final cocktail.

Cocktails, French Vermouth, Gin 2 Comments

Martini

Have finally got around to taking a closer look at one of the classic cocktails, the Martini. The basic recipe is, of course, gin and dry vermouth. But the problem is that in every cocktail book you read, you encounter a different ratio of gin to vermouth. The ratio also depends on when the cocktail book was published, with the Martini becoming drier over the years as tastes changed, that is the ratio of gin to vermouth becoming larger.

If that was difficult enough, the resulting flavour of the Martini also depends very much on the brands used, with the result that for different brands, different ratios work best. This was a revelation that for a given recipe the final result was so different when different spirit brands were used. More so than I ever expected, so much so that you cannot really recommend a given recipe (ratio) without specifying the brands to use! Below are some pairings that I personally prefer. Again, taste is subjective – I prefer my Martinis less dry – and this post encourages you to vary the ratios for each brand used until you find your own personal favourite brand pairings and ratios. Feel free to discuss such pairings here.

Tanqueray No. Ten Gin: Ratio 3:1

1½ oz 45 ml Tanqueray No. Ten Gin, 47.3% ABV
½ oz 15 ml Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry Dry, 17.5% ABV

Portobello Road No.171 London Dry Gin: Ratio 4.5:1

At a ratio of 3:1, I find that the vermouth is too dominate when using Portobello Road No.171 London Dry Gin, so I upped the ratio of gin to 4.5:1, which I found better balanced.

1½ oz 45 ml Portobello Road No.171 London Dry Gin, 42% ABV
⅔ oz 10 ml Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry Dry, 17.5% ABV

Add plenty of ice to a mixing glass. Add the gin and vermouth. The best Martinis should remain crystal clear, so stir gently for about 1½ minutes and then double strain into a Martini or coupé glass to ensure no small pieces of ice remain in the drink.

Cherry Heering, Lime Juice, Orange Juice, Pomegranate Juice, Rhum Agricole, Tiki No comments

Lalau Cocktail – A messed up Aloha Cocktail

I basically made this cocktail by mistake, when trying to decide between making a Donga Punch or an Aloha Cocktail. The former is a cocktail from Dick Santiago’s personal notebook used whilst working at Don The Beachcombers in Hollywood and the latter is by Hank Riddle, 1970, who worked as a bartender at Don The Beachcomber in Palm Springs. Basically, I unintentionally mixed the two recipes and added fresh pink grapefruit juice to the Aloha cocktail. In a second attempt, I replaced the light white rum with the Martinique rhum agricole blanc used in the Donga Punch recipe. So try it and see if you like it. I’ve called it the Lalau, which means error or mistake in Hawaiian, using the Negroni Sbagliato (messed up or mistaken Negroni) as example.

½ oz 15 ml Clément Rhum Agricole Blanc, 50% ABV
½ oz 15 ml El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml Fresh lime juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh grapefruit juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh orange juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Sugar syrup
¼ oz 7.5 ml Cherry Heering Liqueur, 24% ABV
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice cubes and then strain into a flute champagne glass.

Cocktails, Cointreau, Cranberry Juice, Rhum Agricole, Rum No comments

Cosmopolitan malgache

I have recently been reading Tristan Stephenson’s “The Curious Bartender: The Artistry and Alchemy of Creating the Perfect Cocktail” (ISBN 978-1-84975-437-8) and was intrigued by his discussion regarding the cosmopolitan. Unfortunately, I did not have any citrus vodka to actually try out the cocktail, but I had given my partner a bottle of Dzama Rhum Cuvèe Blanc, a rum from Madagascar, for her birthday in February and this rum certainly had a citrus note to it. So this gave me the idea to try a cosmopolitan by substituting the citrus vodka with the Dzama rhum. And yes, well, it was a revelation! Really, a  very delicious cocktail! Try it at your pleasure. The colour is also something to savour.

So here is my recipe. Try it if you can.

2 oz 6 cl Dzama Rhum Cuvée Blanche Prestige, 40% ABV
1 oz 3 cl Fresh lime juice
1 oz 3 cl Cointreau, 40% ABV
1 oz 3 cl Cranberry juice

Add the lime juice, rhum, and Cointreau to a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a Martini glass. Add a zest of orange as garnish. Enjoy.

Absinthe, Angostura Bitters, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Gin, Lime Juice, London Dry Gin, Navy Strength Gin, Old Tom Gin, Pomegranate Juice, Simple Syrup, Tiki No comments

Lunipela Zombie – Another twist on the Zombie

Having read “Professor Cocktail’s Zombie Horde” by David J. Montgomery (ISBN:9781-494352806), a book devoted to just Zombie recipes, I noticed that there were really very few Zombie recipes that used other spirits than rum. One that caught my eye though was a single Zombie recipe based on gin. This sounded interesting, so I went about creating a gin-based Zombie, starting from Don the Beachcomber’s original Zombie recipe, replacing the rum with gin and the grenadine with fresh pomegranate juice as described in an earlier post.

I found that the recipe was astoundingly well balanced. The absinthe played well against the juniper coming from the gin. Try it out and see what you think.

1 oz 30 ml Tanqueray No. Ten Gin, 47.3% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Haymans Old Tom Gin, 40% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Haymans Royal Dock of Deptford Gin, 57% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Simple syrup
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all ingredients but the overproof gin in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Tiki mug or, to better experience the beautiful vibrant colour of the cocktail, a tall glass (at least 15 oz/450 ml). Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof gin over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. Enjoy.

I have called this the Lunipela Zombie; lunipela in Hawaiian means Juniper, referring to the gin and also keeping it in the Tiki mold.

* Don’s Mix.

Absinthe, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Overproof, Pomegranate Juice, Ron, Tiki No comments

Revisiting Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie Again

Having watched Jamie Oliver create a Zombie on his Drinks Tube, in which he used fresh pomegranate juice with its beautiful deep red colour instead of grenadine, I thought I’d see what a difference it would make to Don the Beachcomber’s original Zombie recipe. So I bought some pomegranates and extracted the juice from one. Extracting the juice was a little tricky, but it was easier than I thought. I cut the pomegranate in half and used a simple run-of-the-mill orange juicer to press out and collect the juice. Be careful though, because the juice tends to squirt out from all directions, especially if the skin of the pomegranate breaks, which it tends to do. Finally, squeeze the remaining pieces of the pomegranate to extract the last remnants of juice. I was surprised that the yield from one pomegranate was roughly 200 ml (just over ¾ of a cup)!

The colour is astounding and really improves the general experience of the Zombie. Unfortunately, to enjoy the colour you have to do forgo the Tiki mug. But how much juice should be used? The original recipe calls for 5 ml grenadine, but grenadine is a syrup and much sweeter than the fresh juice. Jamie Oliver used 15 ml. So I initially started with 15 ml, but soon went to 22 ½ ml (¾ oz). To compensate for the loss of sweetness from the grenadine, I added 15 ml (½ oz) of simple syrup.

So to add an extra dimension to the Zombie, replace the grenadine with freshly pressed pomegranate juice and simple syrup. This is now the recipe that I use when making my Zombies.

1 ½ oz 45 ml** Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum, 40% ABV
1 ½ oz 45 ml** Ron Varadero Oro 5 Años, 40% ABV
or
Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, 38% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Simple syrup
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all ingredients but the overproof rum in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Tiki mug or, to better experience the beautiful vibrant colour of the cocktail, a tall glass (at least 15 oz/450 ml). Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof rum over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. If available, additionally garnish with a half of a passionfruit, whose aroma will significantly add to the Zombie experience. Enjoy.

* Don’s Mix.
** The amount of rum can be reduced to 30 ml (1 oz) without a serious loss of enjoyment, if you wish to minimize the impact of the Zombie.

Absinthe, Angostura Bitters, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Grenadine, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Overproof, Ron, Tiki No comments

Revisiting Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie

In earlier post I describe my attempt to create Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie, but could not source the Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum. In the meantime, I have managed to obtain a bottle. And yes, it makes a big difference compared to the El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151. Firstly, it has a much more characteristic rum aroma and taste. Secondly, its dark colour adds to the drink experience. So it is a must for the Zombie and have adjusted my recipe accordingly.

1 ½ oz 45 ml** Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum, 40% ABV
1 ½ oz 45 ml** Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, 38% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Grenadine
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all but the overproof rum in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof rum over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. Serve.

* Don’s Mix.
** The amount of rum can be reduced to 30 ml (1 oz) without a serious loss of enjoyment, if you wish to minimize the impact of the Zombie.

Lime Juice, Orgeat, Rich Syrup, Rum, Tiki, Triple Sec No comments

Black Cask Mai Tai

For Christmas 2015, I treated myself to a bottle of Plantation Black Cask 1651 Rum. I have been very impressed with the rums produced by Plantation, such as Plantation 3 Stars Rum and Plantation Barbados XO Rum 20th Anniversary and the ‘black cask’ labeling intrigued me, so I had to try out the rum. In my opinion this rum is a very well balanced rum. Plantation have done a great job again, so I can certainly recommend it and Black Cask will have to become a permanent fixture in my drinks cabineton my back bar. My initial reaction was that it tasted like a Jamaican rum, but looking closely at the label, this black cask rum was a blend of rums from Barbados, Bélize and Trinidad. Mmm. Maybe, there is strong pot still rum in there that is reminding me of Jamaican rum. Then I thought that this blend may be ideal for a Mai Tai. So I had to try. And yes, it does work, making a very delicious variation on the Mai Tai.

BTW: Plantation rums are produced by Maison Ferrand which also produce the Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec used in this Mai Tai.

2 oz 60 ml Plantation Black Cask 1651 Rum, 40% ABV
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
¼ oz 7.5 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
¼ oz 7.5 ml Bar syrup

Shake together with crushed ice and pour contents including ice into a Tiki mug, garnish and serve.

Postscript (2016-03-13): Having compared the original Mai Tai recipe to my Black Cask Mai Tai, I think that the original recipe still has the edge. The Black Cask Mai Tai nevertheless is still a very delicious alternative!

Cocktails, Italian Vermouth No comments

Milano – Torino / Americano

These recipes are based on those provided in Jamie Oliver’s Drinks Tube. In the video Martini Rosso (Torino) and Martini Bitter (Milano) are used. Currently, I am unable to find a source for Martini Bitter, so I initially used Campari Bitter, before switching to Cinzano Bitter. Campari is more ‘in your face’ than Cinzano Bitter. Although using Campari Bitter makes an excellent Milano – Torino or Americano, I find that Cinzano Bitter makes a more balanced cocktail. Will have to try other sweet vermouths and compare.

Milano – Torino

 1¼ oz 40 ml Cocchi Vermouth di Torino (Sweet vermouth)
 1¼ oz 40 ml Cinzano Bitter
Wedge Orange

Add the sweet vermouth (Torino) and bitter liqueur (Milano) to a rocks glass. Add 2 – 4 ice cubes and add an orange wedge giving it a half squeeze. Stir.

Americano

 1¼ oz 40 ml Cocchi Vermouth di Torino (Sweet vermouth)
 1¼ oz 40 ml Cinzano Bitter
Top up San Pelligrino sparkling water
Wedge Orange

Add sweet vermouth and bitter to the smaller half of a Boston Shaker. Half squeeze a wedge of a fresh orange into the glass. Half fill the second half of the shaker with ice. Pour the glass contents into the second half of the shaker and throw with strainer the contents back into the smaller half to create bubbles. Pour into a rocks glass with ice and top up with San Pelligrino mineral water.

Dale DeGroff Pimento Bitters, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Orgeat, Rhum Agricole, Rich Syrup, Tiki, Triple Sec No comments

Mai Tai

My exploration of Tiki drinks continues with the Mai Tai.

My first attempt used the following recipe, which is based on Trader Vic’s original 1944 recipe, replacing the 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephews Jamaican rum with equal parts dark Jamaican rum and Martinique aged rum (Rhum Vieux Agricole) as recommended by Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry:

1 oz 30 ml Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
½ oz 15 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Bar syrup

The Smith & Cross and the orgeat over-dominated. IMHO the Jamaican rum and orgeat needed toning down a little.

Reducing the orgeat to ¼ oz and replacing the rum with Myer’s Rum Original Dark produced a more balanced cocktail, resulting in the following formula:

1 oz 30 ml Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
¼ oz 7.5 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
¼ oz 7.5 ml Bar syrup

Shake together with crushed ice and pour contents including ice into a Tiki mug, garnish and serve.

Having been making this recipe for a while, I have been experimenting to see if I could add a little more flare and finally settled on a dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters, which in my opinion, improves the recipe and drinking experience without distracting from what the Mai Tai is all about or its colour. So, here is Mixelero’s recommended formula:

1 oz 30 ml Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
¼ oz 7.5 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
¼ oz 7.5 ml Bar syrup
1 dash 1 dash Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters

Shake together with crushed ice and pour contents including ice into a Tiki mug or double Old Fashioned glass and garnish with a slice of pineapple sandwiched between 2 Luxardo Maraschino cherries.

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